


Contract Impostors

by slotumn



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Anal Sex, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arranged Marriage, Claude von Riegan Needs a Hug, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Female Alpha Male Omega, First Time, Hate to Love, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Knotting, Loss of Virginity, Lysithea von Ordelia Needs a Hug, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega Claude Von Riegan, Omega Verse, Politics, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Secrets, alpha lysithea von ordelia, idk they both have some Shit going on, loveless marriage to loving marriage?, loveless marriage to mutually understanding partners to lovers?, omegirlverse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:55:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29165310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slotumn/pseuds/slotumn
Summary: The whole concept wasrepulsiveto her— not only being reduced to animalistic instincts from time to time, but always being chained to them even outside of heats and ruts, no matter how hard one tried otherwise.She should have lived as a beta, invisible and indifferent to such things.(She could have, if it wasn't forthem.)As the only alpha amongst scions of the Alliance Roundtable, Lysithea accepts an arranged marriage with the new king of Almyra. She finds out that neither of them are what she thought they were.(FE3H Omegirlverse day 2: arranged marriages and day 3: secrets)
Relationships: Lysithea von Ordelia/Claude von Riegan
Kudos: 21
Collections: FEOmegirlverse 2021





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> And now, for something a bit different from what I usually write... or not? I wanted to do a long-ish "loveless arranged/political marriage becoming something more" with these two for a while, and then I decided to mix it with omegaverse and here's the result. Enjoy!

When the new king of Almyra requested (pressured) that the Leicester Alliance send an alpha from one of the five Roundtable houses as consort and Lysithea was the only one who fit the bill, she figured it may as well happen.

She and her parents had turned down numerous marriage proposals from eager omegas and/or their parents, for the formal reason that many of them were looking to marry up, and House Ordelia really didn't have much to marry up to, alongside the fact it would soon be dissolved. 

As for the informal reason, the personal, and more important reason—

—it was the fact she didn't like being an alpha. 

She wasn't born as an alpha, was never meant to live as an alpha, didn't have the instincts of an alpha. 

Sure, she had ruts (if she didn't take suppressants, which was rare these days), and her body reacted around the scent of omegas or "competing" alphas, but no matter how many years passed, it didn't feel like "second nature," as it was supposed to. The whole concept was _repulsive_ to her— not only being reduced to animalistic instincts from time to time, but always being chained to them even outside of heats and ruts, no matter how hard one tried otherwise. 

She should have lived as a beta, invisible and indifferent to such things.

(She could have, if it wasn't for _them_.)

But back to the matter at hand. 

Although she'd originally sworn off on marriage, that was with the assumption that she would have to provide for an omega from a lower social standing. King Khalid of Almyra was a beta, however, and could provide assistance to her family and territory; in exchange, he'd gain diplomatic benefits as well as an alpha mate, as the custom in Almyra apparently demanded. (The ideal ruling couple would both be alphas, she heard, but one alpha was better than none.)

Customs. Conventions. Crests.

Nobody was free from those things, it seemed, even on the other side of the border.

* * *

Lysithea remembered her parents' sad, resigned expressions as they parted better than the wedding ceremony. 

Khalid, with too much of a babyface for anyone to think of him as a king at first glance (not that she was the one to speak), was obviously just as bored throughout; the first thing he said after they retired to the bedchamber was, "Fucking finally."

The second thing was, "There are lots of other empty bedrooms on this side of the palace, so feel free to pick whichever one you want tomorrow."

She fell asleep reading a book on basic Almyran grammar while Khalid scribbled away at something on his desk, and when she woke up the next morning, he was nowhere to be found. 

* * *

The bedroom she picked was close to the library, and one of the few that didn't smell like an omega or another alpha. 

The former, she suspected, came from the former king's concubines and the former queen's lovers, for as important as it was for the ruling to be both alphas, there were some physical satisfactions that only an omega could provide, or so everyone claimed; and the other alphas must have been Khalid's siblings, even though nobody in the palace ever mentioned that he had brothers and sisters at all. 

She had a guess as to why, and didn't bother bringing it up. 

Overall, the so-called married life was just as monotonous and loveless as expected; every day, she got up, took her suppressants, went to the library to study. If some event or meeting came up, she'd go and sit by Khalid with a stern ("alpha-like") face, throwing in a few words where it was needed. 

They ate their meals separately more often than they ate together, the latter usually happening when Khalid needed to discuss something about Fódlan. The subject at hand was usually politics, things that let her file the conversation as another part of the job, another part of the act. 

But sometimes—

"I heard that foxgloves are very common across Leicester," said Khalid, after sipping pine tea. "What do you think of planting some in the garden?"

"...I prefer lilies, but it doesn't particularly matter either way."

"Lilies it is, then."

—sometimes, the categorization shook just enough to leave her thinking about it at night. 

* * *

The first— incident, for a lack of better words, took place during a harvest festival. 

Entertainers, merchants, generals, emissaries across the land came to the palace for a grand banquet, singing and dancing and drinking from sunset to sunrise. It was an important enough event that she not only dressed up, but put on a special perfume that was meant to enhance her "natural" scent. 

Lysithea initially thought that the servants purposefully put more on her than needed, overcompensating for the fact Khalid was a beta, but when the festival began, she quickly confirmed that everyone there reeked of pheromones— flaunting their status, their identity, their reason for existence as machines of sexual reproduction.

She wanted to hurl. 

(She hated Alliance balls for the same reasons, she'd remembered. The Fódlan nobles pretended to be a little more "polite" about it, but the veneer of decorum only made the mating ritual more repulsive to her, if anything.)

But she was the queen now, the highest alpha in the kingdom, whether she liked it or not. So Lysithea sat by Khalid, facing straight ahead without looking at the performing dancers— mostly omegas. 

"Ah, is Her Majesty not enjoying the event?" 

She only noticed the general who had approached them when he spoke, voice laced with oil and venom.

He was an alpha, the head of House Mardikh, the largest and strongest of the ruling Almyran clans next to the Almyran royal family and their greatest rival, as Gloucester was to Riegan or Aegir was to Hresvelg. 

Their family emblem hung in one of the empty royal bedchambers.

"I am simply not used to Almyran customs yet," she replied, purposefully keeping her pronunciation stiffer that usual and hoping that would be enough of an explanation. 

The general must have continued to hold a slimy grin on his face, judging by his voice.

"I hope you will come to see the joy of these festivals once you do," he said. "The finest omegas gather in the palace during the celebrations. This will be one of the best opportunities to fulfill certain needs."

"My "needs" are not particularly strong, so that won't be necessary, I believe."

She still did not turn to look at the general, but she heard his mocking laughter loud and clear.

"The Fódlanese truly are a repressed people, it seems," he said. "Or perhaps... Her Majesty has already found an omega to satisfy her?"

Strangely enough, that comment was what made Khalid clench his fists next to her. 

Why he would react at that, of all things, she did not know. There wasn no such thing as romance between them, and even if there was, alpha consorts taking lovers other than the monarch, if only for sexual reasons, was a well-established custom— surely he couldn't be jealous, especially not from such a baseless accusation. 

Regardless, she couldn't keep letting this fool run his mouth like that. 

"I have not," she said, pronunciation more natural now, "but I would not be opposed to finding out which one of _your_ omegas can satisfy me the best, if that's what you're offering."

Lysithea mentally pat herself on the back when the general scrambled off upon hearing that, muttering something under his breath. Khalid let out an amused chortle once he was out of sight, because there was nothing like seeing a common enemy humiliated, she supposed. 

"Thank you," he told her afterwards, voice unusually sincere. "Really."

She wasn't sure if something like that warranted such a heartfelt thanks, but accepted it nonetheless.

* * *

The second incident was actually a series of several loosely related incidents.

Lysithea noticed once, twice, then several times that her books got shifted around when she wasn't in her room; which, to be fair, probably just meant that the servants cleaning it didn't know how particular she was about organizing her belongings.

So once she left a note saying not to touch her books, of course the next thing that happened (a couple of weeks later, probably as to not arise too much suspicion) was her rut suppressants getting tampered with. Thankfully, she had spares hidden in her locked chest, inaccessible by anyone who couldn't use the very specific type of dark magic she used— so she threw the tampered ones out, and began planning.

Eventually, she caught the culprit in the act, trying to mess with her stash of sweets (which was, frankly, even more unforgivable than tampering with the suppressants), and dragged the maid in question to Khalid herself. He gave the order for "disposal" without blinking an eye, but looked uncharacteristically somber— bordering on concerned— once the guards were gone. 

"Next time you spot something suspicious," he told her, hand firm on her shoulder, "tell me right away. I know how to deal with this kind of stuff."

It became yet another thing that kept her up at nights.

And one of those nights, when she heard a blood-curdling scream coming from his room, she jolted out of bed, running over as fast as possible with a dagger in one hand and a spell sparking in the other—

"Oh. That was loud, huh."

—and saw Claude holding several people down on the floor, white tunic stained fresh red from the dagger stuck in his ribs, drawers and furnitures and objects thrown about everywhere.

"Sorry about that," he said, while the guards rushed in behind her— voice casual even while coughing out blood, as though this was some minor inconvenience he'd dealt with a million times before. "You can go back now, princess. Already took care of the bad guys, so no need to worry!"

She did, and stayed up many, many more nights after that.

* * *

And in retrospect, had she been a little less stupid, she could have caught on by the third incident, not long after the second, when he looked unusually serious asking her to come with him to one of the royal villas while the whole palace staff underwent an overhaul. Too many traitors and spies amongst them, he'd said, and at this point the only option was "replacing" most of them wholesale. Lysithea knew as well as him that she should agree and go with him; she was a queen from a foreign land that still held strained relations with Almyra, and left alone, she would be a prime target for assassination, kidnapping, what have you. 

But at that moment, she honestly would have taken death to having to talk to, travel with, and be in the general vicinity of Khalid for extended periods of time.

Because no matter what she did, she couldn't look at him without feeling her stomach twist.

Not at him, though.

Every time she remembered seeing him bleed out, every time she remembered turning back around and walking away without so much as asking if he was okay, she felt such overwhelming shame and guilt. She needed space, to _not_ think about him for a while and clear her mind; so against all insistence and advice, she stayed in the palace, hoping to enjoy the quieter halls and concentrate on her studies again.

Long story short, she couldn't stop thinking of him, and he came back reeking of fresh alpha and omega pheromones.

Of course, she'd thought to herself, backstepping and walking away from him as quickly as possible after the obligatory "welcome back" greeting. Of course _that's_ what he did at the "royal villa."

It was for the best that she didn't follow him, she decided. 

Would he not have done that, were she— his queen, his _wife_ — around, she wondered. 

The scent eventually wore off, of course, and that should have been the end of that, but some part of her mind couldn't let go of the possibility that this may happen again.

That Khalid, a _beta_ , someone who should stay neutral and indifferent from the awful pheromone-addled world of alphas and omegas, would show up reminding her of it without even realizing he did. He probably didn't even realize how lucky he was, and that, _that's_ what she was jealous of— his existence as a beta, the life she could and should have led.

Not those unnamed alphas and omegas he fucked. 

"I don't care who you choose to lay with," she eventually told him, her tone failing to sound as calm as she wanted it to be, "but for goodness' sake, make sure that I won't know about it."

"If that's what you want," he answered. 

That was the _correct_ answer, and she'd planned to end it there without further discussion. 

So naturally, Khalid ruined it by having the audacity to add on:

"But what in the world made you think I'd... go around seeking out other partners in the first place?"

And, oh, for the first time in her life, Lysithea saw _red_. 

It was bad enough that the Empire and their experiments destroyed her family and territory, it was bad enough that she was torn apart and put back together into something she was never meant to be, was bad enough that she ended up here in Almyra, far, far away from everything she held dear precisely because she wanted to protect them.

"You... you—"

And now, this so-called husband of hers, took her for an idiot.

"— _you really don't understand a single fucking thing, do you?!?!_ "

She didn't remember exactly what she said afterwards; she didn't even know what words were coming out of her mouth as it happened in real time, although if she had to guess, it was probably something about how he was an untrustworthy, manipulative, opportunistic bastard, a _coward_ who wouldn't ever be able to stand his own in a fair fight, a hypocrite who talked big about changing the system for show when in reality he was just as much of a slave to it as everyone else— _she_ — was. 

She did remember that it ended with him walking away like he didn't intend to come back. 

* * *

And he didn't. 

For the next few weeks, she didn't eat with him, didn't get calls to attend meetings or events, didn't even run into him in the halls. 

When she heard some of the servants sounding mildly concerned about the king overworking himself, she thought, _good, he should._

 _She'd_ always overworked herself without even realizing it, because that was what it took to achieve her goals, help the people she loved, and that was as the scion of a soon-to-be dissolved minor noble house. Khalid was royalty, the king of a nation, and if he cared half as much for his kingdom as she cared for her family, that was the least he could do. 

Collapsing from too many sleepless nights. Being bedridden for days on end. 

It didn't matter, she thought, with as much spite as she could muster. She didn't give a damn about him or his wellbeing. Their marriage was a sham, there was nothing between them, and she didn't care about him.

"Your Majesty, the king has ordered to see you in his chambers."

A cold hard contract it began as, and a cold hard contract it would stay.

"Understood."

No matter what he had to say for himself, that wouldn't change, she reminded herself, as she walked down the hallway and through doors after doors with intricate locks—

"Y-you're here, ah, thank gods..."

—only to for her thoughts to grind to a halt when she opened the last one. 

"We, hah, have stuff to talk about, but first... lock that... behind you... okay? Please."

The royal bedchamber was filled with the scent of an omega in heat, and it came from none other than the king himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The porn is coming next chapter, I promise.


	2. Chapter 2

"Lock that... behind you... okay? Please."

Lysithea made sure she did, pushing and pulling on the doorknob to make sure, even though her hands were suddenly clammy and sweaty, and oh, it felt like her lungs were both burning and drowning from the scent in the air. 

Cinnamon. Saffron. Ginger. Maybe pine. It smelled like all of those, and something else that was— her body reacted to it as she stumbled forward towards the large bed, panties growing damp and cock tenting the fabric of her dress, but _she_ already regretted coming here.

Once she was sitting next to him on the mattress, Lysithea blinked and rubbed her eyes just to make sure what she was seeing was real: Khalid, already half-naked and flushed, panting from heat.

 _Stay still, don't move,_ yelled the last shred of sanity inside her. 

If she moved now, she was going to do something she'd regret— again.

"How..."

Khalid chortled— or maybe sighed, it was difficult to tell.

"Pretty simple, really. As you can see, I'm," he had to momentarily pause from a groan and a shiver, "I'm an... omega."

This was the part where she was supposed to feel betrayal, or anger, or some other emotion along those lines. Their marriage had been a sham from the start, but the one thing she'd counted on being real was her husband being a beta— someone who wouldn't trigger these awful, animal instincts just by existing around her. 

He lied. This was probably grounds for annulment. She had every right to be enraged.

All the alpha inside could think of was mating and breeding the omega in front of her.

Khalid must have read that, too, from the way he looked at her erection and licked his lips— or maybe that was just the omega in him, but he definitely knew what he was doing when he pulled the blanket covering his lower body aside, where his cock was also tenting the loose pants, leaking, enough for there to be a wet spot on the front alongside the one on the sheets underneath.

"It's time to fulfill your duty as a consort," he whispered, reaching out and taking her hand. "You want to, don't you?"

Lysithea practically collapsed into him, hating that he was right.

* * *

And really, on the off chance she'd ever have sex anyone, Lysithea expected she'd at least be somewhat in charge. Part of that was being an alpha (whether she liked it or not), and a part of that was just her personality, but—

"Yeah... right there. So good."

—she wasn't sure if she was right now, as she pressed their lengths together with her hand according to his instructions, shivering every time his cock shifted against hers.

He was experienced. Far more than her, a virgin who rarely masturbated, because she hated being reminded of what she was (made into) or simply lacked the energy for it after hours of studying. 

"Nnh..."

His cock was so large, too— long and thick and heavy, around the same size as her own. Which was stupid, because he was an omega, so what use did he have for it, anyway?

"I'm, hah, going to put it in now."

That was more of a declaration than a request, but Khalid gave permission, spreading his legs further. Lysithea took a shaky breath as she pressed the head of her cock against his leaking hole, suppressing the growl that rose in her chest. She hadn't done anything to prepare him there like she was supposed to, but he was already leaking so much slick.

There was the slightest bit of resistance as she slid past the entrance, and then—

"Ah— !!"

"Fuck, _yes_ —"

—the rest of her length slid so quickly into the heat that her mind went blank. 

Hot, tight, wet, massaging every inch of her cock as her hips thrusted forward again and again— she couldn't think, couldn't surpress the growls from her chest. Khalid's legs, strong and muscular, locked around her waist, and he looked so unfairly good stroking his own cock to her irregular thrusts, moaning and trilling and purring. 

"Mmh...!"

All too suddenly, she came, her pussy squeezing at the same time sperm spurted up her cock and into him. 

She'd barely lasted a minute, she realized, embarassment swelling at the same time her knot did. 

"Hey, it's fine," came Khalid's voice. "That happens. It's your first time, right?"

Lysithea nodded, and he moved one of her hand to his cock. 

"Help me with this, then."

Something was going wrong with her, she thought, as her hand began fondling the thick shaft.

He looked so perfect, laying in front of her like this, and she wanted to lick and kiss him all over and— oh, she wanted to kiss him so bad, even though they've barely made any physical contact since that ceremonial one almost a year ago. 

"Ah... there, keep going—"

His hole tightened every time she brushed a thumb over the slit, and with one final firm stroke upwards, he came, copious amounts of cum splattering over his firm stomach. As if in a trance, she wiped some off with her fingers and pressed it against her tongue. 

"Bleh."

Khalid gave a breathy laughter in response, and she made the mistake of looking at his face, where his eyes were curved into crescent moons and the grin on his lips was a little crooked. 

So natural, unlike his usual stiff, practiced smile, and her heart skipped, against her will. 

"Come here," he said, once again pulling her down towards him, until their lower stomachs were flush with his limp cock nestled in between, and she could make out the individual strands of his eyelashes. 

Then they were kissing, his hands holding the sides of her face so that she couldn't pull away— not that she would have, because the way he made her open her mouth and hungrily licked every corner inside felt too good. So much so that she almost forgot this was the first time she'd kissed like this; an _adult_ kiss, the kind that happened between lovers and mates. 

Neither of which applied to them, even though they were married. 

But it could, whispered something inside her. 

All she had to do was bite down on the crook of his neck, where her fingers were brushing over, and he'd be hers. They could feel good together like this anytime they wanted, he wouldn't come back smelling like any other alpha again, and she could knock him up, make him swell with her pups—

"Don't," he said, once they parted. "Not yet."

Lysithea internally cursed, wondering if she was really that easy to read, but complied, her hands sliding away from the scent gland and wandering for a while before settling on his arms. 

Not yet. 

Did that mean that he'd be okay with it, someday? Did he want them to be properly mated?

Did she?

There was too much going on for her to come up with a clear answer; she didn't know how much of her thoughts were her and how much was the alpha, nor how much of the man in front of her was Khalid and how much was the omega. 

All she knew was that being close to him felt good, and that she was unbelievably tired— not just from what they did, or from the past year, but from everything that had happened since the day she woke up as an alpha with two Crests and white hair. 

* * *

"Slept well?"

Khalid was still next to her when she woke up. 

A blink, a yawn, a look around, and she spotted a tray of food and drinks next to the bed. Bread, meat, fruit, and even sweets— she marvelled at the wide array of options on the last one, and almost darted out to grab them before remembering she wasn't alone. 

Not only that, but she was with an omega, who she just mated with, so normally, she was supposed to be the one who brought food to him, wasn't she? Not that she particularly enjoyed playing the part of alpha, but in this specific case—

"Did you... go outside? For that?" she asked, gesturing at the tray. 

"No, I had the servants leave it outside the door," he replied. "And the walls in this room are scentproof. My secret's safe, no worries, et cetera."

"Ah."

Lysithea stared downwards, playing with the blankets. 

The frenzy from earlier had calmed down, they'd just effectively consummated their marriage, and were they a regular, functional couple, this was the part where they'd have a heart-to-heart talk. 

Even if they weren't a functional couple, they still had some— lots of— things to discuss, yet for the first time in her life, Lysithea had no idea where to start.

"Speaking of the servants," Khalid (thankfully) began, "the ones that got disposed of— I believe it's House Mardikh who bribed and bought them out."

She'd figured as much, so she nodded, still not looking at him. 

"I believe they were trying to find evidence that I was an omega."

 _That_ made her head snap up, eyes locking onto his face, which held far too calm of an expression for what he just said. 

"They know?"

"They don't have solid proof, since the ones who did are all..." Khalid made a slitting motion across his throat, "...but rumors have a way of getting around like that. Anyway, I'm guessing what they wanted was the proof, so that's probably why they sent people to tamper with our suppressants."

"I see," she said, then looked away as inconspicuously as possible. "...Did you run out because of that incident?"

"Nope. I always keep spares on hand, and I got more when I visited my parents at the villa," he explained. "I... intended to tell you about all this, when you followed me there, since I won't have to worry about the wrong people hearing it with my parents around."

His parents. 

Something clicked, and something sunk.

"Your parents are alphas?" she asked, just to confirm.

"Pa's an alpha, Ma's an omega," he replied, then chuckled. "Another reason why they hate me, I guess. Not only is my mother from Fódlan, she's an omega. Can you imagine?"

Ah.

The alpha and omega he came back smelling like were— fuck, how could she have been so _stupid_ , why did she assume—

"Back to the point. My suppressants are fine, but this— this happened because I was stupid," he said, then half-sighed, half-laughed. "Turns out, if you overexert yourself until your body goes haywire, the drugs don't work like they're supposed to. Who would've guessed!"

And the worst part was, he didn't even sound angry. 

"Anyway, what I wanted to tell you was—"

Like being misunderstood in the worst ways were obvious, like nobody helping him with anything was just a fact of life.

"—I'm sorry. I've been too cold to you all this time, and I shouldn't have."

Her chest heaved, and something hot rolled down her face. 

This fool, she thought. 

Why was _he_ the one saying sorry?

"We've been married tor a year and we barely know anything about each other— not to mention I should have been up front with this earlier—"

Lysithea lunged forward, grabbing his arm and burying her face into his neck so he couldn't see her tears (even though her voice would most certainly give it away). 

"S-stop," she sputtered out. "Don't apologize. You don't have anything to apologize for. Not when... when..."

Khalid's hand lightly pat her back as she took deep breaths, trying to keep her voice steady enough for her own stream of confessions and apologies— about how she kept avoiding him for her own comfort, about the misunderstandings that could have been easily avoided, about the awful things she wished on him until several hours ago, about the way she would have looked down on him if he'd revealed he was an omega from the start, just like everyone else did, no matter her personal excuses for it.

All that came out were sobs, sobs, more sobs, and she unravelled in his arms, until the alpha was gone and there was only Lysithea left. 

And Khalid— just him, no omega or omega pretending to be a beta— let her, chuckling in a way that said he understood all too well. 

"We've both been pretty bad to each other, huh," he whispered, voice cracking. "So let's fix that. We can fix it, right?"

Could they?

After they'd already gotten this far on the wrong feet?

But no, of course they could, she thought, looking at her husband as he wiped her tears away— because if there was one thing she already knew they had in common, it was that once they set their minds to it, they made anything and everything work, no matter what it took.

And here, the only factors at play were the two of them. That was all she had to focus on.

"...Yes," she sniffled, hugging him. "We'll fix it."

So for rest of the evening, they held each other, gladly forgetting that the world outside existed.

* * *

Khalid's heat lasted a few more days, and Lysithea decided help him through it, her aversion to being an alpha be damned.

Not that it went away entirely, and once she managed to tell him a part of that secret, he told her to not force herself; but the more honest she decided to be, the more she saw just two people instead of an alpha and an omega, the easier it became to find good things about it. The alpha instincts may not have been authentic, but that didn't mean all of the pleasure, the closeness, and the comfort was fake, or so she desperately wanted to believe.

And Khalid was nothing if not convincing.

It was something of a surprise, that he could be so playful and affectionate and _clingy_ , the way he kissed her all over and hugged her so desperately; and maybe that had less to do with him liking her and more to do with the loneliness, but if they kept trying like this, staying with each other like this, surely it could become something more. 

That was another thing she wanted to— decided to— believe in. 

"You're a fast learner," he told her on the third night, laying on their sides with legs tangled together. "Difficult to imagine you were a virgin just a few days ago."

"So I've been told," she replied, preening a little. "But personally, I just think everyone else is a little slow."

Khalid gave a low laugh and poked her cheek before asking, "Would you be offended, if I said you just sounded like an alpha right then?"

"I am an alpha, and I still need to play the part of one, so not particularly."

A sigh. 

"I meant it when I said you don't need to force yourself."

Lysithea lifted her own hand to mirror his motion. 

"I don't think I force myself any more than other people force themselves to be... whatever makes life most convenient."

He went quiet at that one. 

"But, just so we're clear," she quickly added, "from here on, in regards to you— I won't put on an act. Or at least, I'll... do my best to not."

A hug, another sigh. 

"I know," he said. "That's enough."

Enough. 

In her dictionary, that word was usually on the negative side of neutral; "enough" worked, "enough" was sufficient, but if she could be "enough," why stop there?

Lysithea took his face and placed a kiss on his cheek. 

"...You'll get more than that," she promised. 

And even if Khalid didn't quite believe her yet, she knew from his kiss back that he wanted to, that he'd try.

For now, they could start there.

**Author's Note:**

> Check out the [Lysiclaude NSFW Bingo](https://twitter.com/lysiclaudensfw?s=09)!  
>   
> [Join the Lysiclaude Discord!](https://discord.gg/GZmtGbw)  
>   
> [My twitter](https://twitter.com/slotumn?s=09)  
> 


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